American Labor History Timeline
Events
The
Colonial and Revolutionary Eras
1619 First
slaves brought to American colonies: They were brought to Jamestown by Dutch traders who
had stolen them from a Spanish ship. Because the Spanish usually baptized
captured Africans and the English exempted baptized people from chattel
slavery, these first African Americans joined around 1,000 English indentured
servants in the colony. (Source: Wikipedia)
 |
| Bacon's Rebellion-The Burning of Jamestown |
1676 Bacon’s
Rebellion: Nathanial Bacon led Virginia settlers in a rebellion by against the rule
of William Berkeley and local Native Americans, who were scapegoated for the
colony’s economic woes. While Bacon himself was disdainful of labor, his rebels
came from all social classes, and included poor whites, former indentured
servants and African slaves, an alliance that terrified the ruling elite.
(Sources: Wikipedia, PBS)
1712 New
York Slave Revolt: 23 slaves rose up, killing 9 whites. 21 of the conspirators were
eventually executed. 70 other Africans were arrested and jailed in response,
with several committing suicide in jail. In the aftermath, African Americans
were prohibited from gathering in groups of more than three, carrying firearms,
or owning property, even if they were free. (From Wikipedia)
1741 New
York Bakers Strike: Possibly the first work stoppage in U.S. history occurred when New York
bakers, who were predominantly small business owners, rebelled against price
fixing by the city. (Sources: UHWO, Inc.)
 |
| Boston Massacre |
1770 Boston
Massacre: As British
soldiers quartered in colonists’ homes started taking jobs from local workers,
the rope makers started provoking British soldiers, who fired and killed
Crispus Attucks, a multiethnic colonist (African and Wampanoag). They went on
to kill 4 others. Attucks is considered the first casualty in the American
Revolution. (From Workday Minnesota)
 |
| Portraits of Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck |
1787 Shays
Rebellion: On January 25, Daniel Shays and 800 followers marched to
Springfield, Massachusetts to seize the Federal arsenal during Shays’
rebellion. They were ultimately defeated by the Massachusetts State militia.
The rebellion, which began in August, was an attempt to end the imprisonment of
farmers for debts, confiscation of their lands and other attempts by the
wealthy to make the poor pay for the Revolutionary War. The U.S. Constitution
was written in the wake of Shays’ rebellion and designed in part to prevent
other similar uprisings by the common people against slave owners, bankers,
landlords and businessmen. (Sources: the Daily Bleed and Wikipedia)
Early Industrial Capitalism, Abolition and the
Nascent Labor Movement
1800 Gabriel
Prosser Uprising: Prosser was a literate, enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave
uprising in Richmond, Virginia but was betrayed and executed before the revolt
was launched. At the time, 39% of Virginia’s population was enslaved, thus the
potential damage from a slave revolt was significant. It is estimated that 100
co-conspirators were involved in Gabriel’s Uprising, including several whites
who he likely met working in the foundries. (Sources: Wikipedia)
 |
| Denmark Vessey |
1822 The
Vessey Conspiracy: Denmark Vessey, a Caribbean slave inspired by the 1791 Haitian
revolution, purchased his freedom and then plotted what would have been the
largest slave insurrection in U.S. history. However, turncoats reported him and
the other conspirators, leading to their execution. (Sources: Wikipedia)
 |
| Nat Turner captured by Mr. Benjamin Phipps |
1831 Nat
Turner’s Rebellion: Also known as the Southampton Insurrection, the Rebellion was a slave
revolt in Virginia in which slaves killed 55-65 whites, the highest number of
white casualties of any slave revolt in U.S. history. The insurrection was put
down by authorities within a few days, but Turner managed to evade capture for
several months. Between 100 and 200 slaves were executed by the courts or by
white mobs in retaliation. (Sources: Wikipedia)
1834 Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal Workers Riot: On January 29, canal workers rioted, prompting
President Jackson to send in troops, the first time American troops were used
to suppress a domestic labor dispute. Workers
were rebelling because of terrible working conditions and low pay. Construction
teams were made up mostly of Irish, German, Dutch and black workers who toiled
long hours for low wages in dangerous conditions. The use of federal troops set
a dangerous precedent that gave business leaders the confidence that they could
count on the federal government to quash labor unrest in the future. (Sources: the Daily Bleed and History.com)
1835 Philadelphia
General Strike: Workers struck for the 10-hour day
in what was probably the nation’s first General Strike. In all, 20,000 workers
walked off the job. After one week, the city caved to the workers’ demands,
granting all city employees a 10-hour day that ran from 6 am to 6 pm, with an
hour lunch and an hour for dinner. Their success inspired a wave of strikes and
ultimately led to the 10-hour day in many other cities (Sources: UHWO, Socialist Webzine)
1835 Children
Struck for 11-Hour Day: In the Patterson silk mills, children went on strike for an 11-hour day
and a 6-day work week. (Source: AFGE)
1838 Caulkers
Association Founded: One of the first black unions, the Caulkers Association began in the
Baltimore shipyards, where Frederick Douglas worked before escaping to freedom.
The union bargained collectively and often won wage increases for its members. (Sources:
APWU)
 |
| The Last Moments of John Brown, by Thomas Hovenden |
1859 Harpers
Ferry: John Brown
led an unsuccessful raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, WV, in an
attempt to provoke a slave revolt and provide weapons to them. The raid
ultimately led to his arrest and execution. (Sources: Wikipedia)
1863 Emancipation
Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln, ordering the freeing of all slaves held
in the Confederate states. (Sources: UHWO)
1867 Chicago General Strike for 8-Hour Day: The 1-week strike
to enforce the state’s new 8-hour day law ultimately failed, as militia were
brought in to force workers back to work, general for 10-12 hour shifts. The
8-hour day movement started in earnest in 1864 and was inspired by the
abolition of slavery (shorter day meant a little more freedom). The movement
was about leisure, freedom and personal growth, each of which requires less
time at work. (Sources: AFGE, Encyclopedia of
Chicago, Truth Out)
 |
| Terence Powderly, Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor |
1869 The Knights of Labor (KOL), officially known as the
"Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor," was founded on
December 28, 1869, when both American capitalism and the labor movement were
young and relatively disorganized. It began as a secret society, but quickly
grew into the largest and most significant labor organization in the U.S. by
the 1880s. The Knights are considered by many to be a predecessor to the more
well-known Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Like its more radical cousin,
the IWW, the KOL called for the abolition of the wage system and fought to
organize all workers into one big union, including women, blacks and
immigrants. And, like the IWW, one of the KOL’s slogans was, “An Injury to One
is the Concern of All.” (Sources: Modern School; The
Knights of Labor; The Lucy Parsons Project;
Libcom.org; The Samuel Gompers Papers; Wikipedia)
 |
| National Colored Union, Harpers |
1869 First National Black Union: The Black National Labor Union was founded in
Washington, D.C. under the leadership of Isaac Myers (later ceded to Frederick
Douglas). Myers was born to free African Americans in Baltimore in 1835 and was
a member of the Caulkers Association (see 1838, above), where he worked with
Douglas. (Sources: AFGE, APWU)
 |
| 6th Regiment Repressing Workers, Baltimore, 1877 |
1877 The Great Upheaval (AKA: The St. Louis
Commune, St. Louis General Strike, The Great Strike, The Great Train Strike)—As
many as 100 workers were killed and over 200 were injured in the wave of
strikes occurring throughout the country. The strike united diverse workers,
including black and white, as well as skilled and unskilled. The Great Upheaval began in
Martinsburg, WV, on July 16, when the B&O Railroad slashed wages by 10%, the
second wage cut in 8 months. The train crews refused to work, drove out the
police and occupied the rail yards. Local townspeople backed the strikers and
came to their defense. When the militia was sent in to run the trains, the
strikers and their supporters defended themselves with guns, derailed the
trains and guarded the switches at gunpoint. While they halted all freight
movement, they continued to move mail and passengers, thus maintaining public
support. When militia reinforcements were sent in, most mutinied or refused to
fight, as they were sympathetic to the workers. Throughout the country,
similar scenarios unfolded, with workers taking over the railroads and other
businesses, and attacking police and militias when they tried to take them back
or to bring in and defend strikebreakers. In numerous towns, the
soldiers fraternized with locals, refused to fight them and sometimes joined
their struggle. (Soures: Modern School; UE
News; Howard Zinn;
Brecher, Jeremy., Strike!, 1997. ISBN 0-89608-570-8)
1877 Ten coal-mining activists ("Molly Maguires") were hanged in
Pennsylvania. The Mollys were an Irish secret society of coal miners accused of
kidnapping and other acts of violence. They were convicted based on the
testimony of one Pinkerton private cop and various witnesses were believed by
many to have been bribed or coerced. (Sources: Lutins.org; Wikipedia;
Spartacus)
 |
| Chinese Railroad Workers in the Snow |
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act: Chinese men had been encouraged to immigrate
to the U.S. from 1848 to 1869 to work in California’s gold fields and on the
transcontinental railroad. They worked for low wages and put little pressure on
state infrastructure, in part because they were single males, but also because
of restrictive and racist laws and the threat of attack by whites. By the
1870s, racist attacks against the Chinese were on the rise and white citizens
were complaining that the Chinese were taking their jobs. The Chinese Exclusion
Act, one of America’s most restrictive anti-immigrant laws ever, remained in
place until 1943, when the U.S. needed China’s assistance in its war with
Japan. (Sources: Wikipedia,
Harvard University Library).
 |
| Rock Springs Massacre |
1885 Rock Springs Race Riot and Massacre—28
Chinese Americans killed by white miners in a dispute stemming from Union
Pacific Coal Company’s practice of paying Chinese laborers a fraction of what
they paid white workers. In a particularly negative blot on U.S. labor history,
the Knights of Labor not only helped organize the white workers,
but many of their members participated in the attacks on the Chinese workers.
(Sources: Wikipedia;
History
Matters)
1886 Bay View Massacre 6 workers and 1 child
were killed at the Milwaukee Iron Company Rolling Mill while fighting for the
8-hour day. (Sources: Wikipedia; Links to the Past; Wisconsin
Labor History Society;
libcom.org)
1886 American Federation of Labor: The AFL was founded in 1886 in Columbus, OH,
with Samuel Gompers as its leader.
The AFL emerged in response to turf wars with the Knights of Labor,
particularly after a cigar makers strike in New York. (Gompers had been the
head of one of the rival cigar makers unions.) The union, which was always
staunchly anti-communist, began to make
alliances with the Democratic Party in 1907 and was an enthusiastic supporter
of World War I, WWII, the Korean and Cold Wars. (Sources: AFGE, Wikipedia, Marxists.org)
 |
| Haymarket Rioters, Harpers |
1887 The Haymarket Affair 8 cops died,
mostly from friendly fire, plus an unknown number of civilians, when a bomb was
thrown at a public meeting in Haymarket Square, Chicago, during planning for a
General Strike to win the 8-hour day. 8 anarchists were arrested and convicted
in a kangaroo court, despite the fact none was present at the bombing. 4 were
executed and one committed suicide in jail to “cheat” the state out of its
revenge on him. May 1st is celebrated as International Workers Day
in virtually every country of the world (except the U.S.) to commemorate this
struggle. (Sources: Modern School; IWW;
Lucy Parsons Project; Recollection Books; Libcom.org)
1887 The
Thibodaux Massacre: The Louisiana Militia and bands of whites shot at least
35 unarmed black sugar workers and lynched two strike leaders. Some sources
place the death toll at over 300. The massacre came during a 3-week labor
dispute that had been organized by the Knights of Labor. Gov. Sam McEnery eventually brought in 10
companies of infantry to break the strike. (Sources: Lutins.org; Wikipedia, Libcom.org)
 |
| Shield Used by Striking Homestead Workers |
1892 Homestead Steel Strike and
Massacre: Homestead
Steel Works in Pennsylvania was owned by Andrew Carnegie and managed by Henry
Clay Frick. Amalgamated Association of Steel and Iron Workers (AA) had won a
bitter and violent strike against Homestead in 1882, and Frick and Carnegie
vowed to crush the union, which they ultimately did. In January, Carnegie slashed
wages, while Frick imposed speedups and hired 300 Pinkertons. In July, Frick
laid off the entire Homestead workforce, effectively ending collective
bargaining. The workers fought back, taking over the town’s political authority
and running its infrastructure. 10,000 strikers temporarily held off the
Pinkertons and scabs with sticks and a few guns. However, 40 strikers were shot
and nine killed, while 120 Pinkertons were shot and seven killed. (Sources: Modern School, Part I; Modern School, Part II; Wikipedia; Strike! by Jeremy
Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972)
1892 Frisco Mine was dynamited by striking
Coeur D’Alene miners after they discovered they had been infiltrated by
Pinkertons and after one of their members had been shot. Prior to this, the
mine owners had increased work hours, decreased pay and brought in a bunch of
scabs to replace striking workers. Ultimately, over 600 striking miners were
imprisoned without charge by the military in order to crush the strike. These
events led to the formation of the Western Federation of Miners, one of the
more radical unions of its day. (Sources: Wikipedia;
Fire in the Hole)
 |
| Big Bill Haywood |
1893 Western Federation of Miners (WFM) formed
in May of this year, in Butte, Montana, representing 15 unions in Montana,
Idaho, Colorado, Utah and South Dakota. Big Bill Haywood became a leader of the
organization by 1902 and vigorously espoused industrial unionism, in which all
workers in a given industry are organized in one big union in order to maximize
solidarity and power. In response to the mass arrests and imprisonment of its
members during the 1890s, Haywood began to call for the complete abolition of
the wage system. (Sources: Wikipedia; Strike! by Jeremy
Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972)
1894 Cripple Creek Strike and Waite Agreement:
Cripple Creek mine owners in Colorado attempted the same attacks on Colorado
miners (e.g., longer hours and pay cuts) and organized a private army to
enforce their will. The private army terrorized citizens, as well as miners,
and was ultimately disbanded by the mine owners under threat of martial law in
what was known as the Waite Agreement, which last for ten years. The WFM were
also able to win the 8-hour day for their members. The peace and victory would
be a short-lived precursor to the Colorado Labor Wars of 1903-1904—See Below. (Sources:
Wikipedia;
Strike! by Jeremy Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972)
 |
| Pullman Strike |
1894 Pullman
Strike: 34 workers were killed in this nationwide rail strike led by Eugene
Debs. The strike began in Pullman, IL, as a wildcat response to wage cuts. The
strike escalated to involve over 250,000 workers across 27 states, with 12,000
army soldiers being sent in to quash the strike. The rail workers ultimately
signed a no-union pledge that kept the lines union-free until the Great
Depression. (Sources: Wikipedia; Strike! by Jeremy
Brecher, South End Press, Boston, 1972; Recollection Books)
 |
| Protest March After the Lattimer Massacre |
1897 Lattimer
Massacre: 19 unarmed immigrant miners were killed by a sheriff’s posse
during a strike in Luzerne County, PA. (Sources: Wikipedia; UMWA)
1898 Virden
Massacre: 25 workers were killed in a battle with armed guards transporting
black strikebreakers in from Alabama. The strikers succeeded in turning away
the train and winning wage increases. (Sources: Wikipedia; Remember
Virden; Illinois Labor History)
1899 Bunker
Hill: Bloody strikes had been going on at this and other Idaho mines over
the course of the 1890s. The mine owners had been using scabs, Pinkertons,
armed goons, soldiers, lock-outs and other tactics to squeeze the workers and
crush their union. In retaliation, the miners loaded a train with dynamite and
delivered it to the Bunker Hill mine in 1899, killing one scab and one WFM
member. (Sources: Laborers.org; Wikipedia)
1902 8-Hour
Days Were Created by State Amendments in Utah and Colorado. In Colorado,
the law was passed with the support of 72% of voters and the backing of the
WFM. However, under pressure from the mining companies, the legislature ignored
the referendum and the miners decided to strike (see Colorado Labor Wars,
below). (Sources: Wikipedia)
1902 Pennsylvania
Mining Strike (AKA The Coal Strike): Anthracite coal miners (UMWA) in
Eastern Pennsylvania were striking for higher wages, shorter hours and union
recognition. Teddy Roosevelt intervened (the first time a president had done
so), threatening to send in the military after negotiations failed to end the
conflict. The strike finally ended with
a a raise and shorter hours, but still no union recognition. (Sources: Wikipedia; Stfrancis.edu)
1902 Pana
Massacre: 14 workers were killed, martial law was declared, and the town of
Pana, IL, was occupied by National Guards in an attempt to break the UMWA. (Sources:
Lutins.org; Wikipedia; Rense.com)
1903-1904 Colorado
Labor Wars: The National Guards, Pinkertons and vigilantes were used by the
mine owners to intimidate miners. Hundreds of striking WFM miners were arrested
and held in stockades. Many were deported. Children were arrested for chiding
soldiers. General Sherman Bell, of the National Guards and a former mine
manager, upon hearing that imprisoned WFM miners were asking for writs of
habeas corpus, said “Habeas corpus be damned. We’ll give them post mortems.”
(Sources: Wikipedia; Colorado’s War on Militant Unionism, George Suggs; Lucy Parsons Project)
1904 Dunnville
Battle: 6 workers were killed and more than 70 were deported in the
continuation of the Colorado Labor Wars. (Sources: Rense.com
Rise of IWW, Garment Workers and State/Employer Violence
 |
| Lucy Parsons |
1905 The
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) was founded on June 27,
1905, by Big Bill Hayward, Daniel De Leon, Eugene Debs, Lucy Parsons, Father
Haggarty, Mother Jones, Ralph Chaplin and others, in part in response to the
defeats of the WFM in Colorado, Utah and Idaho and in opposition to the
conservative AFL. The IWW was not just a labor union fighting for better
conditions for working people, but a revolutionary organization out to abolish
the wage system and employer class completely. Like the Knights of Labor, they
organized all workers into one big union and were inclusive of all workers,
regardless of race, gender or national origin. Unlike the Knights, they
eschewed political action, favoring direct action like strikes, slow-downs,
work-to-rule and sabotage. (Sources: The IWW; Wikipedia; Libcom.org; Helen Keller; Harry Siitonen; Sabotage, by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Western Mining History; Lucy Parsons Project)
1905 Chicago
Teamsters Strike: 21 workers were killed in what would escalate into a
General Strike. Riots continued on a near daily basis from April through July. The
Teamsters had attempted to end the strike by bribing members of the Employers
Association, leading to allegations of corruption that would weaken the union
in the following years. (Sources: Wikipedia; Chicago’s Strike Ordeal, Stanley Powers, 1905)
 |
| GE in 1907 |
1906 First Sit-Down
Strike: America’s first sit-down strike was organized by the Wobblies (IWW)
at General Electric, in Schenectady, NY. 3,000 workers participated in the
occupation of the facilities for 65 hours, bringing production to a standstill.
(Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia)
1907 Nation’s Worst Mining
Disaster: 361 coal
miners were killed in Monongah, West Virginia. (Sources: UHWO)
 |
| 2 Picketers Among the Uprising of 20,000 |
1909 Uprising
of 20,000: The Lady Garment Workers Strike in New York (AKA the Shirtwaist
Strike) was a strike by mostly Jewish women and girls against sweatshop working
conditions. 700 were arrested in just one month. Male goons were hired to
intimidate and assault the women. A judge told the women they were striking
against God. However, the women remained resolute and public sentiment turned
in the favor. The strike ended in 1910 with increased wages and improved
working conditions and hours. (Sources: Wikipedia; AFL-CIO; Jewish Women’s Archive)
 |
| The Little Red Song Book |
1909 The Little Red Song Book, from the IWW, was first published
in Spokane and included songs by Joe Hill, Ralph Chaplin, T-Bone Slim, and others. The early editions
contained many of the labor songs that are still famous, such as "The Red Flag," "The
Internationale,"
and "Solidarity
Forever," while
later editions included such classics as “Rebel Girl,” “Mr. Block,” and “The
Preacher and the Slave.” You can see video versions of some of these on the Labor Music Video Page. (Sources: IWW; The Sacred Chao)
 |
| LA Times Building After Bombing |
1910 Llewellyn
Ironworks and Los Angeles Times bombings: A bomb destroyed the LA
Times building in October, killing 21 employees and injuring over 100, and
another destroyed a portion of the Llewellyn Ironworks in December. The Iron
Workers had been engaged in a brutal and protracted battle with U.S. Steel and
the American Bridge Company, which had been successfully busting their union
through the use of spies, informants, scabs and agents provocateur, as well as
propaganda by their friend Harrison Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
James McNamara and his brother, John McNamara, secretary-treasurer of the
International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, were convicted
after being kidnapped and allegedly framed by private cops. (Sources: Modern School; Workday Minnesota)
1910-1911 Westmoreland Coal Strike: 16 workers and family members were killed
during this strike by the UMWA. The strike lasted from March, 1910 through
July, 1911, encompassing 65 mines and 15,000 miners, with the miners and the
UMWA losing the strike. Miners’ wives showed up to support their husbands,
harassing scabs and getting arrested. Because they couldn’t afford the fines,
the women were forced to serve a month in jail with their babies and children.
(Sources: Wikipedia;
patheoldminer; Jones, Mary Harris: The Autobiography of
Mother Jones. 4th ed. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 1996)
 |
| Triangle Shirtwaist Building, March 11, 1911 |
1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire: 147 women and
girls died (mostly Jewish and Italian immigrants) in this tragic fire, many
because the managers had locked all the doors, preventing escape. The company’s
owners were acquitted of any crimes, but were forced to pay nominal civil
damages of $75 per victim. (Sources: Remembering the Triangle Fire; Wikipedia;
Democracy Now)
1912 Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike in West Virginia
lasted from April, 1912, until July 1913, and resulted in 50 workers’ deaths
through violence, plus numerous more deaths from starvation. The strike and
resulting violence were a prelude to the later Matewan massacre and Battle of
Blair Mountain. The miners were striking for union recognition, free speech, an
end to blacklisting and cribbing, among other demands. Beatings, sniper attacks
and sabotage against the workers were routine. The Baldwin-Felts private police
were called in by the mine owners. (Sources: Wikipedia;
“History is a Weapon,” Mother Jones speech to striking coal
miners; “The Paint Creek-Cabin Creek Strike,” San Francisco Bulletin, March 21, 1913)
 |
| Lawrence Strike |
1912 Lawrence Textile Strike (AKA The Bread
and Roses Strike, because the women were demanding not only a living wage, so
they could feed their families, but a better quality of life, too). This IWW-led
strike was the first known strike to implement the moving picket line, so as to
avoid arrests for loitering. The strike was also unique in that the workers
spoke 22 different languages and came from 24 different nationalities,
prompting the IWW to give each language group a delegate on the strike
committee and complete autonomy. (Sources: The Lucy Parsons Project; Libcom.org;
Bread and Roses Centenial; Rense.com)
1912 IWW struck Galloway Lumber Company in
Grabow, LA. Also known as the Graybow
Riot (July 7), four workers were killed, 50 were
wounded, and 58 were arrested. (Sources: IWW)
1913 Calumet Christmas massacre (AKA the
Italian Hall Disaster): 73 men, women and children, mostly striking miners and
their families, were crushed to death on Christmas Eve at during a party at the
Italian Hall in Calumet, MI, when someone falsely yelled “fire.” Company thugs
have been blamed for the false cry and for blocking the doors in a deliberate
attempt to crush the union. (Sources: Wikipedia;
the Italian Hall Disaster; Daily Kos)
 |
| Strike leaders Patrick L. Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood. |
1913 Patterson Silk Strike was an
IWW-supported strike for better working conditions and the 8-hour day. Nearly
2,000 workers were arrested, including IWW members Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and
Big Bill Haywood. (Sources: The Masses (John Reed); Wikipedia;
The Lucy Parsons Project; Patterson
Friends of the Great Falls; Sabotage,
by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn)
1913 United Fruit Strike: New Orleans:
police shot three IWW members, killing one. United went on to be one of the
dominant neocolonial powers in Central America (along with Standard Fruit),
supporting Banana Republic dictators and their violent anti-labor policies.
United Fruit is now known as Chiquita. (Sources: Rense.com, Wikipedia, the Daily
Bleed)
1913 Wheatland
Riots: Hop pickers struck against Durst Ranch in Wheatland, CA, when Durst
advertised for twice as many workers as he needed in order to drive down wages.
Over 100 vigilantes arrived and shot into the crowd, killing 2 workers, a
deputy and a district attorney. IWW organizers Ford and Suhr were blamed and sentenced
to 15 years in prison.. (Sources: IWW; Wikipedia; libcom.org;
Labor.net)
 |
| Ludlow |
1914 Ludlow Massacre: John D. Rockefeller and other mine operators
engaged company goons and the Colorado State Militia to crush 10,000 striking
miners in Ludlow, Colorado. The militia attacked a tent camp with machine guns
and then set it ablaze, killing 5 men, 2 women and 12 children. By the end of
the strike, more than 75 people had been killed. (Sources: Howard Zinn;
Colorado
Coalfields War Project; Wikipedia;
AFGE;
Modern School)
 |
| Roosevelt Massacre |
1915 Factory guards shot 20 rioting strikers in
Roosevelt, New Jersey, killing several
of them. (Source: AFGE)
1916 Youngstown Massacre (January 6): Company guards at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube plant attacked a crowd of
striking workers and their wives and children with tear gas bombs and live fire,
killing three strikers and wounding 25 others. (Source: Daily Bleed)
 |
| Joe Hill, executed, with Bullet Holes |
1916 Joe Hill (1879-1915) was executed on
trumped up murder charges. Hill was
a Swedish immigrant who became an IWW organizer and prolific song writer (Rebel
Girl, Preacher and the Slave, The Tramp, Casey Jones the Union Scab). (Sources:
Wikipedia, Joe Hill Project)
1916 Everett Massacre: 7 workers were killed
and 50 injured when vigilantes hired by local businesses fired upon IWW members
arriving in Everett by boat from Seattle. 75 Wobblies (IWW) were later arrested
for murder. (Sources: Wikipedia; Everett
Public Library; UW Everett Collection; IWW;
Rense.com)
1916 "Preparedness
Day" parade bombing occurred in San Francisco, killing 10 and injuring
40. Labor organizer Thomas J. Mooney and Shoe Worker Warren K. Billings, both
IWW members, were convicted, spending years in prison before being pardoned in
1939. (Source: AFGE,
Wikipedia,
Modern School)
 |
| Striking miners and others rounded up by the armed posse |
1917 Bisbee Deportation: On July 12, 1,300 striking IWW
miners, their supporters, and innocent bystanders were illegally deported from
Bisbee, AZ, by 2,000 vigilantes—over 200
miles in cattle cars, without food or water for 16 hours. (Sources: the Daily Bleed, Modern School, IWW,
and Wikipedia)
 |
| Frank Little, 1907 |
1917 Frank Little Lynching: On August 1, IWW organizer Frank Little was lynched in Butte, Montana. Little, a Native
American, was kidnapped from his home by six Anaconda Copper Company thugs,
dragged by a car and hanged from a railroad trestle. He had also been
advocating that workers refuse to collaborate with the capitalists by fighting
in WWI. (Sources: Workday Minnesota, IWW, Wikipedia)
 |
| Newspaper cartoon of woman pleading for democracy during East St. Louis Riot |
1917 East St. Louis Labor and Race Riot
(40-200 deaths): The “Great Migration” north was already well underway, with
African Americans moving to industrial cities like Chicago seeking work. In
East St. Louis, resentful white mobs frequently attacked black workers and
their families, culminating in a riot on July 2 that killed as many as 200
African Americans and left thousands of them homeless. Many of the unions fed
the racism not only by generalizing all black workers as scabs, but by doing
little to organize them or build solidarity with them. (Sources: Wikipedia, the Black Past)
1917 IWW Offices Raided in 48 U.S. Cities.
Roughly 165-300 IWW members were arrested initially, but within six months,
2,000 were in jail and sentenced to lengthy terms. In Spokane, martial law was
declared. Virtually every IWW union hall in the country was busted. The raids
and arrests were so extensive that the union never regained its strength or
influence. (Sources: HistoryLink.org, IWW, History
Matters)
Insurrection, Palmer
Raids and WWI
1918 Ginger Goodwin Assassination: A hired private
policeman shot United Mine Workers Organizer Ginger Goodwin outside Cumberland,
B.C. (Source: AFGE)
1919 Fannie
Sellins Assassination: Company guards gunned down United Mine Worker
organizer Fannie Sellins in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania. (Source: AFGE)
 |
| Chaos during Boston police strike and riot |
1919 Boston Police Strike and Riot: On September 19,
looting, rioting, and sporadic violence broke out in downtown and South Boston
after 1,117 policemen declared a work stoppage. Governor Calvin Coolidge brought
in the entire state militia to put down the strike. (Source: AFGE,
Wikipedia)
1919 The Great Steel Strike: nearly 400,000 steelworkers
went on strike for union recognition on September 22,
ultimately failing. Martial law was declared in Gary, IN. Troops were called to
several cities. (Sources: AFGE,
Rense.com)
1919 Centralia Massacre: Legionnaires
attacked a Centralia, Washington IWW hall and then lynched IWW organizer Wesley
Everest. (Sources: AFGE,
Wikipedia,
IWW)
 |
| Newspaper clipping during Seattle General Strike |
1919 Seattle General Strike: After two years
of frozen wages due to the war, over 65,000 workers went on strike in Seattle
for higher wages, joined by members of both the AFL and the IWW. The strike was
a virtual commune, with the General Strike Committee taking over most
governmental functions, including providing food and security. Mayor Hanson
brought the strike to an end by threatening violence with soldiers, cops and
several thousand deputized UW students. (Sources: Wikipedia,
Seattle General Strike Project, Seattle Times, Lib com)
1919 Red Scare Begins—Approximately 250
"anarchists," "communists," and "labor agitators"
were deported to Russia, marking the beginning of the so-called "Red
Scare," or “Palmer Raids.” Woodrow
Wilson's Attorney General, A. Mitchell
Palmer, ultimately arrested nearly 6,000 people on suspicion of
"communism." Those who were not U.S. citizens were deported as
"undesirable aliens." (Sources: AFGE,
Workday Minnesota, Daily
Bleed)
1920 Anaconda
Road Massacre: On April, 21, Anaconda Copper company guards
in Butte, Montana opened fire on striking IWW miners, killing 1 and injuring 16
others. (Sources: Wikipedia)
1920 Matewan Battle: Ten people were
killed when coal company officials in Matewan, West Virginia, tried to remove
striking union workers from coal company housing. They sent in agents from the
Baldwin-Felts detective agency who evicted several families before trying to
hop on a train out of town. Sheriff Hatfield, who supported the miners’ right
to organize, tried to arrest the detectives who, in turn, tried to arrest
Hatfield. Unbeknownst to the detectives, they had been surrounded by miners. No
one knows who shot first, but when the smoke had cleared, there were 7 dead
detectives (including Albert and Lee Felts) and 4 dead townspeople. Miners were
typically forced to live in company towns and purchase living necessities from
company stores at inflated prices. They were paid in scrip, which was useless
outside of the company towns. In the time leading up to the Battle of Matewan,
numerous miners had been assassinated by vigilantes, goons or detectives. In
the aftermath of the massacre, the miners went on strike and were treated to
even more violence. (From Workday Minnesota, Wikipedia, Daily Bleed, Modern School and Matewanwv.com)
1920 Alabama Coal Strike: This was a
statewide strike by the United Mine Workers that was marred by racial violence
and ended in defeat for the union. UMW was already integrated by this time,
which was offensive both to white racists, and black assimilationists. Several
people were killed during the strike, most of whom were black workers. (Sources:
Wikipedia)
 |
| Miners with bomb that had been dropped on them |
1921 Battle of Blair Mountain: Sheriff Sid
Hatfield and Ed Chambers were murdered by Baldwin-Feltz private cops for their
role in the Matewan labor
battle in 1920, when two Feltz family thugs were killed by
Hatfield and his deputies. They were executed on the Welch County court house
steps in front of their wives, leading to the Battle of Blair Mountain, where
20,000 coal miners marched to the anti-union stronghold Logan County to
overthrow Sheriff Dan Chaffin, the coal company tyrant who murdered miners with
impunity. The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed insurrection since
the Civil War and the first time that American citizens were aerially bombarded
by their own government. (Sources: the Daily Bleed, Wikipedia, Workday Minnesota)
1922 The
Herrin Massacre (June 22): striking coal miners killed 20 guards and
strikebreakers in Herrin, Illinois in retaliation for the murder of three of
their own. (Source: AFGE,
Wikipedia)
 |
| A. Phillip Randolph, 1946 |
1925 The Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, founded by A. Phillip Randolph and others, was the
nation's first African American union. The AFL, which proclaimed support for
Randolph's efforts, historically excluded African Americans from its
membership. (Source: AFGE)
1927 Columbine Massacre: 6 unarmed mine workers
were machine-gunned down in Serene, Colorado, either by police or company
guards, during a weeks-long strike at the Columbine Mine. (Sources: Wikipedia)
The Era of Depression and General Strikes
1933 National Industrial Recovery
Act (NiRA): Companies
that abided by NiRA codes for minimum wages and maximum working hours could not
only skirt anti-trust laws, but could also enforce open shops and discriminate
against union activists and workers of color. (Sources: WSWS, International Socialist Review)
 |
| Toledo General Strike |
1934 Toledo General Strike: 2 workers were
killed and over 200 were injured during the Auto-Lite strike in Toledo, Ohio.
The auto strike began in February, 1934, with as many as 10,000 other employed
and unemployed Toledo workers joining the General Strike in May. During the
General Strike, there was a five-day running battle between thousands of
workers and the Ohio National Guard. Workers fought the police and National
Guardsmen with their fists and with bricks (sometimes firing them with
slingshots made from inner tubes). The strike ended when public outrage over
the brutality against the workers forced Auto-Lite to recognize the union and
offer employees a 5% raise. (Sources: Wikipedia, WSWS)
 |
| SF General Strike |
1934 San Francisco General Strike: The longshoremen’s strike, which began
as a strike for a union hiring hall and union recognition, started on May 9 and
lasted 83 days, leading ultimately to the unionization of all West Coast ports.
After World War One, West Coast long shore workers were poorly organized or
represented by company unions. The IWW had tried to organize them with some
successes, like in San Pedro, in 1922, but they were ultimately crushed by
injunctions, imprisonment, deportation and vigilante violence. While
longshoremen lacked a well-organized union, they retained a syndicalist
sentiment and militancy. On May 9, 1934, longshoremen walked off the job at
ports up and down the West Coast, soon to be followed by sailors. 2 strikers
were shot dead by the bosses’ goons in San Pedro. There was also violence in
Oakland and San Francisco. Street battles between the cops and strikers
continued in San Francisco, heating up on July 3, and culminating in Bloody
Thursday, on July 5, when 3 workers were shot by police (two of them died). The
attack led to a four-day general strike that effectively shut down commerce in
San Francisco, despite police violence and attempts to weaken it by national
unions. (From the Daily Bleed, Workday Minnesota and Wikipedia)
1934 Minneapolis General Strike: grew out of
a Teamsters strike that began May 16. On Friday, July 20, 150 police opened fire on striking
workers as they attempted to block a scab truck, killing two and injuring 67
others. That night, 15,000 workers protested, followed by a citywide strike of
all transport workers on July 23. The next day, roughly 100,000 people participated
in a march. On July 26, martial law was declared. Picketing and rallies were
banned, while union leaders were arrested or and ordered to leave town. However,
the strike was costing employers millions of dollars and the strike was
ultimately settled with the employers recognizing the teamsters and offering
workers a modest raise. (Sources: WSWS, Wikipedia)
1934 Eastern Textile General Strike: Over
400,000 textile workers participated in what was one of the largest strikes in
U.S. history up until that point. The strike came in response to attacks by
employers exploiting the new National Industrial Recovery Act (NiRA, see
above), which allowed the mills to slash hours and weekly pay by 25%. In
response, a General Strike of textile workers began on September 1 that spread
throughout the South and the Eastern Seaboard. The authorities
in the various affected states responded by calling in National Guards,
deputizing citizens, declaring martial law and other heavy handed tactics that
resulted in numerous deaths and dozens of arrests. The workers’ ultimate defeat
left most of the South non-unionized for the next 50 years. (Sources: International Socialist Review, North Carolina History Project, Wikipedia)
1935 The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) Founded on November
9, 1935, as an opposition movement within the AFL (which expelled the CIO in
1938). Important
founding members included the Steelworkers, Auto Workers and Textile Workers.
The CIO ultimately merged with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1955
to form the AFL-CIO. (Sources: International Socialist Review, Workday Minnesota)
1935 Wagner Act: A wave of strikes and labor
turmoil during the Great Depression paved the way for the Wegner Act—also known as the National
Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which legitimized unions, but also created rules by
which they had to abide, promoting the bureaucratization and timidity of union
leadership. Even with the rules of NLRA strongly favoring the bosses, they
fought it tooth and nail, finally winning passage of the Taft Hartley Act, in
1947, which weakened NLRA by blocking unions from engaging in secondary
boycotts, solidarity actions with other unions, and general strikes. (Sources: Modern School)
1937 GM Sit-Down Strike: GM recognized the United Autoworkers
(UAW) after their famous 44-day sit-down strike in Flint, MI. The Flint strike was
actually preceded by two days when workers at the Fisher Body plant in
Cleveland launched a sit-down strike. During the Flint strike, 5,000 armed
workers circled the plant to protect the workers inside. Following police
attacks with tear-gas, workers fought back with fire hoses. 13 workers were
injured by police gunfire. By the time the National Guard arrived, sympathy
strikes had spread to GM plants across the country, with 44,000 autoworkers
participating. (Sources: Workday Minnesota, Daily Bleed)
 |
| Battle of the Overpass, National Archives |
1937 Battle of the Overpass: United Auto Workers were attacked by Ford
security forces. UAW organizers Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen were
badly beaten, swaying public opinion in favor of the UAW. (Sources Wikipedia)
 |
| Memorial Day Massacre, National Archives |
1937 Memorial Day Massacre: The Chicago
police shot and killed 10 unarmed protesting workers during the “Little Steel
Strike.” 30 others were injured, including 9 who were permanently disabled. Most
were shot in the back as they fled. No police officers were ever prosecuted.
(From Wikipedia, WSWS)
1938 Hilo
Massacre: On August
1, 1938, police
opened fire on 200 unarmed trade unionists protesting the unloading of a ship
in Hilo Harbor, on the Big Island of Hawaii, in what became known as "the
Hilo Massacre." The protest was in support of striking waterfront workers.
50 workers were injured. Police also used tear gas and bayonets. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)
WWII
and the Post-War Wave of Strikes and Federal Suppression
1941 No Strike Pledges by AFL and CIO: The major unions sold out their members in the
name of fighting fascism. (Sources: UHWO)
1943 Smith-Connally Act: The law restricted labor bargaining and
organizing, required cooling off periods, imposed criminal penalties for
encouraging strikes and allowed the president to seize control of struck
plants. (Sources: UHWO)
1944 Port Chicago Mutiny, San Francisco Bay
Area: Munitions exploded while mostly black sailors were loading ships, killing
320 and injuring 390. Unsafe working conditions continued after the disaster,
prompting hundreds of the sailors to stop working and refuse to load anymore
munitions. 50 of them were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to long prison
terms, though the majority were released after a year and a half. (Sources: Wikipedia)
1945-1946 400,000 Miners & 750,000 Steelers Went
on Strike—Part of the largest strike wave in U.S. history. At one point
there were 1.6 million workers simultaneously on strike. By the end of the
year, more than 4.5 million workers had deliberately stopped working. During
World War II, most major unions signed no-strike pledges. As a result, there
were numerous grievances and conflicts that had been building up during the war
that came to a head in 1945-1946. The number of union members in the U.S. also
doubled from 7 million in 1940, to 14.5 million by the war’s end. During the
strike wave, over 400,000 coal miners struck, along with 750,000 steelworkers, 70,000
teamsters, 300,000 meatpackers, 175,000 electrical workers and nearly 50,000
petroleum workers and machinists. (Sources: Daily Kos,
New York Times, Marxists.org,
Counter Punch)
1945 Navy Seizes Oil Refineries: In October,
Truman used the navy to seize half of the nation’s refining capacity to break a
post-war strike in 20 states. (Sources: Lutins.org, Jeremy
Brecker)
1946 Government Seizes Railways: In May, rail workers decided to join the miners
and steelers. Such a strike threatened to bring the economy to a standstill as
it would have significantly reduced the transport of goods. President Truman
seized the railroads to break the strike, threatening to use the army to run
the lines until the workers settled. (Sources:
UHWO, Bits of News)
1946 Rochester General strike: The Rochester
City Council fired nearly 500 city workers on May 15, 1946 for forming a union
and then started to mass arrest picketers and organizers on May 21-23, provoking
a General Strike later that month. (sources: Rochester
Labor, Daily Kos)
1946 Oakland General Strike: The last General Strike in the U.S.
occurred in 1946 in Oakland, California. The strike came in response to the
anti-labor policies of Hastings and Kahn’s department stores in downtown
Oakland. Hundreds of store clerks (mostly women) went on strike in late
October. The store enlisted the police to clear away strikers and protect
strike-breaking scabs. On December 3, 100,000 workers throughout Oakland joined
the strike. The AFL eventually voted to walkout in solidarity with the clerks. However,
Harry Bridges, who was then head of the California CIO, refused to become
involved, while the AFL quickly brokered a sellout deal on December 5, when the
city manager agreed not to use police to bring in scabs deal—a deal that
angered of many store clerks and teamsters who continued to picket (Modern School, Counterpunch, Libcom).
1946 More General Strikes: Less well-known General Strikes also
occurred in 1946 in Stamford, CT, and Lancaster, PA. (Sources: Jeremy
Brecker)
1947 Taft-Hartley Act: This anti-labor law, which was passed
in 1947, banned the General Strike, solidarity or sympathy strikes, and
secondary boycotts. It prohibited closed union shops and opened the door to
“right-to-work” legislation. President Truman, whose veto was overridden,
called it an “intrusion on free speech.” The law also permits the president
to obtain a strike-breaking injunction
by claiming that national security is threatened by the strike. Many believe Taft-Hartley was a
direct response by capital to the upheavals of the recent Oakland General Strike
and the coal and steel strikes. (Wikipedia, Modern School)
1950 Army Seizes Railroads: Truman once
again seized the railroads—this time to block a General Strike from occurring.
The army occupied the railroads for two years before handing them back to their
owners. (Sources: AFGE)
1952 Army Seizes Steel Mills: Truman also used the army to avert a major
strike in the steel mills. The Supreme Court later ruled the move
unconstitutional. (Sources: AFGE)
1955 AFL and CIO merge: Two large
pro-business unions merge into one mega-pro-business union hell bent on
avoiding strikes and keeping production flowing.
1959 Longest Steel Strike in U.S. History: 90% of U.S. steel production was halted for
116 days. Eisenhower used Taft-Hartley to force the steelworkers back to work. (Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia)
The 1960s and 70s
1965 Delano Grape Strike: The predominantly Filipino Agricultural
Workers Organizing Committee launched the strike, but it was soon joined by
Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta’s Mexican-American National Farmworkers
Association. The two groups eventually united to form the United Farmworkers
(UFW). The union also
initiated a nationwide grape boycott that lasted five years and ended with the
first union contract for U.S. farm workers outside of Hawaii. (Sources: UHWO, Workday
Minnesota)
1968 Martin Luther King Assassinated while supporting the AFSCME Sanitation Strike,
Memphis. (Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia)
1970 Postal Strike: The
first mass postal strike in U.S. history began when carriers in Manhattan and
Brooklyn walked off the job, but quickly spread to 210,000 of the nation’s
750,000 mail carriers. (Sources: UHWO, AFGE)
Trailer for “Harlan County, USA”
1972 Bloody Coal Strike (Again) in Harlan County:
Miners struck the Duke Power Company
in Harlan County, Kentucky, the sight of numerous bloody strikes in the past
(including the Battle
of Evarts, 1931). (Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia, The
Atlantic)
1974 Karen Silkwood Killed: Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union activist Karen
Silkwood was assassinated during her investigation of a Kerr-McGee nuclear
plant in Oklahoma. Her car was run off the road while she attempted to deliver
documents to a New York Times reporter. (Sources: UHWO, Workday
Minnesota)
The
Modern Era, PATCO, Decline of Unionism
1981 PATCO Strike: U.S. federal air traffic controllers began a nationwide
strike after their union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization
(PATCO), rejected the government's final contract offer. Most of the 13,000
strikers ignored orders to go back to work and were fired on August 5 by
President Reagan for participating in an illegal work stoppage. In response, the
AFL-CIO organized a protest of 400,000 in Washington, D.C. However, Reagan's
action crushed the union and sets the tone for labor-management relations
across the country for the ensuing 30 years, with employers beginning to take tougher
stands against unions, increasingly relying on strikebreakers and mass firings,
and hastening the decline in union membership. (Sources: UHWO, Shmoop Labor
History, Workday
Minnesota)
1989 Pittston Coal Strike: A Wildcat strike at the Pittston mines in
West Virginia spread to 11 states, with 50,000 miners participating. The strike
began when 98 miners and a minister occupied the company’s Moss 3 plant in
Carbo, VA. The strike
began after Pittston terminated health benefits for retirees, widows and
disabled miners. State troopers were called in to arrest strikers after violent
conflicts occurred, yet the struggle barely made the news the U.S. Over 4,000
strikers were arrested and UMW boss Richard Trumka did everything in his power
to shut down the strike and sell the workers out. They ultimately won back
health benefits for current and retired miners, one of the few labor victories
of the 1980s, but they also lost job security and some workplace rights. By
1995, Pittston’s workforce had declined by more than two-thirds. (Sources: UHWO, AFGE, Workday
Minnesota, Wikipedia)
Scene from “Bread and Roses,” Ken Loach’s 2000 film about Justice for Janitors
1990 LAPD Attacks Justice for Janitors (J4J): J4J began in Los Angeles in response to the
slashing of wages and benefits by employers. In 1983, janitors were making $7
per hour or more, with health benefits. By 1986, their wages had declined to $4.50
per hour, without benefits, as building owners subcontracted cleaning services
to private contractors who cut wages and benefits to better compete with each
other. The J4J strike in LA lasted throughout April, with the janitors
ultimately winning a 22% raise. (Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia)
Hamlet
Chicken Plant Disaster, by Mojo Nixon and Jello Biafra
1991 Hamlet Chicken Plant Disaster: A fire at the Imperial Foods poultry
processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina, killed 25 and injured 49. Workers
had been locked into the facility to prevent them from taking too many breaks,
thus trapping them inside and dooming them to die in the fire. In 11 years, the
plant had never received a safety inspection. The owners of the plant received 20-year prison sentences. (Sources: UHWO, Wikipedia)
2001 1st State-Wide Teachers’ Strike: occurred in Hawaii. 10,000 K-12 teachers and
3,000 university faculty participated. (Sources:
UHWO)